Neurotrophin Treatment for Pediatric Brain Injury

候选人的目标是成为一个独立的临床科学家。小儿创伤性脑损伤 (TBI)通过与一群优秀的导师和来自大学的咨询委员会进行培训， 宾夕法尼亚大学和德雷克塞尔大学医学院，他们是儿科TBI领域的权威 research.宾夕法尼亚大学和德雷克塞尔大学的环境资源和人员都很丰富， 研究人员将变得更加容易与实验室技能，科学写作，研究设计， 实验方法概述了这项研究的建议。 博士Huh是宾夕法尼亚大学费城儿童医院的儿科重症监护医生 医学院，谁照顾儿童创伤性脑损伤（TBI）。尽管TBI是 这是儿童后天残疾和死亡的头号原因， 急性发作。头部受伤的儿童通常会留下慢性学习（认知）缺陷。 脑外伤后，大脑似乎暂时增加内源性分子称为神经营养因子 如胰岛素样生长因子I（IGF-I）和神经生长因子（NGF），其在脑组织中的表达最高。 儿童大脑，通过促进树突生长、突触功效和抑制 钙蛋白酶，与创伤性轴突损伤有关的蛋白酶。使用临床相关的闭合头部模型 损伤，目前的研究建议的目标是证明外源性 这些营养因子的施用将增强树突生长、突触功效，并抑制钙蛋白酶， 介导的轴突损伤，以防止慢性认知缺陷。 这些研究与公共卫生非常相关，因为它将为未来的调查提供理论基础 候选人开发新的翻译疗法，以抑制与慢性炎症相关的细胞过程。 行为缺陷和促进头部受伤儿童的大脑恢复。

The candidate's goal is to become an independent clinician-scientist in.pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) by training with an outstanding group of mentors and an advisory committee from the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University College of Medicine who are authorities in the field of pediatric TBI research. The environment at Penn and Drexel are rich with resources and personnel so that this junior investigator will become more facile with laboratory skills, scientific writing, research design, and experimental methodology outlined in this research proposal. Dr. Huh is a pediatric critical care physician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who takes care of children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Despite the fact that TBI is the number one cause of acquired disability and death in children, only supportive care can be provided in the acute setting. Head-injured children are often left with chronic learning (cognitive) deficits. Following TBI,the brain appears to transiently increase endogenous molecules called neurotrophic factors such as Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and Nerve growth factor (NGF), whose expression is highest in the pediatric brain and important for recovery by promoting dendritic growth, synaptic efficacy, and inhibiting calpains, proteases implicated in traumatic axonal damage. Using a clinically relevant model of closed head injury in pediatric rats, the goal of the current research proposal is to demonstrate that the exogenous administration of these trophic factors will enhance dendritic growth, synaptic efficacy, and inhibit calpain- mediated axonal injury to prevent chronic cognitive deficits. These studies are very relevant to public health because it will provide the rationale for future investigations for the candidate to develop novel translational therapies to inhibit cellular processes associated with chronic behavioral deficits and to enhance brain recovery in head-injured children.